Beer: Ratings & Reviews

Reviews by boddhitree:

By the way, on the bottom right of the label the meanings of Sissy in English are described. So, not a beer for Sissies? But the picture of a woman may allude to a famous German movie the 1950s, Sissi, who is an Austrian princess. Spelling it with a C might allude to Cascade hops, right?

Appearance: The color is pale ale-ish, light brown and tints of orange in it... telling me he used some München, Melanoinden or other German malt normally used in Märzens or Bocks... or Rauchmalz, which also has darker color but I'm not sure if it has that signature red or orange tint. It's quite cloudy, though, a sign of being unfiltered. (At the bottom of the bottle I found settled yeast, so I'm sure it's also bottle conditioned.) Also, if you see the above pic on the right, it was filled (Abgefüllt am: Tag [24], Monate [3]) on March 24th. Today is April 6th, so it was conditioned for only 2 weeks or so. The foam is sparse, just a couple mm with large pearl-while bubbles which disappear quite quickly.

Aroma: bready, some caramel/Münchener malt, and lots of citrusy hops. It smells wonderful, but not like an American IPA, rather a German Bock/Märzen mixed with a Pale Ale and a Cascade mini-bomb. Again, the label above states it contains Cascade, Saphir (a new German hop) and Perle, a more traditional German Noble hop. A nice blend, I say.

The ABV says 7.2%, but you don't even notice the alcohol. It's masked so well, you'd think it were a 5% or less beer. It's a lot better than the Starkbier from München that almost burned from the alcohol.

Taste:
The flavor... WOW WOW... WOW. This is a fun beer. In the front, lime, citrus flavors, almost a typical Cascade flavor with some bitterness but not lots. Then the middle flavors... smoke, and lots of it! At first it feels almost too much, as if it doesn't fit, then after the tongue learns to expect it, the smoke and citrus meld perfectly together in kind like Chinese sweet/sour sauce does. In the middle of the tongue, you get sweet, Münchner malt flavors. In the back, as aftertaste, you get a good bit of hop bitterness, not Noble hops or a Pils bitterness, but more like an IPA, but all that dissipates quickly and you're left with the sweet malt/smoke/citrus mix staying on the tongue. All these powerful flavors might cancel each other out or not mix well, but they don't. They mix almost like a cocktail.

Overall, I've never had a beer like this... and now I plan on ordering some Smoked malt to try and emulate this beer myself. Again, WOWOWOWOWOW! The art of getting all these diverse flavors not only to play nice, but to all complement each other, I'm just in awe.